One of the concerns of the UB Rector, Prof. Dr. Ir. Nuhfil Hanani A.R., M.S., is UB's rank as one of the state universities that hold the mandate of the Ministry of Research and Technology to become a World Class University. In 2018 this is a pretty heavy start for UB to oversee the mandate. If we only focus on Quacquarelli Symonds or QS (for Asia/World level) and Rating by Kemenristekdikti (National), then UB rank is slightly down.

QS WUR (QS World University Ranking) shows the data in 2012 - 2013 UB was ranked # 601 +, then in the period 2014-2017 it dropped to # 701 +, and in 2018-2019 this dropped again to # 801-1000. For QS Asia (Asia level), in 2017 UB rank slightly increased into #291-300 from the previous level at #301-350 (2016), but this rank is still below the ranking in the previous year which was ranked #251-300 (2015) and ranked #201-250 (2013).

As of Kemenristekdikti Rank, UB rose from rank 6 in 2015 to rank 5 in 2016 but again dropped to rank 8 in 2017. "Hopefully at the end of 2018 data in Kemenristekdikti will show improvement," hoped Dr. Ir. Surjono, MTP, PWK Lecturer of FT-UB who is also the secretary of the Rating Center - LP3M UB.

UB's ranking position Based On QSLearning from these data, UB's performance in 2018 shows a rising trend to crawl for the Asian level, but at the world level, the trend remains to show a declination. This gives an indication that universities outside Asia if taken on average, have a higher acceleration than UB. For the ranking carried out by Kemenristekdikti, UB is also tended to decrease when compared to the rank in 2015.

This condition demands a right strategy for UB to be able to compete with other well-known universities. For that reason, UB's short-term strategy and goals are at least to restore UB's ranking position as in 2013, which is ranked #201-250 for the Asian level and ranked #601+ for the world level. Whereas for the long-term UB should aim for #500+ world rankings.

"If you ask me, when can it be reached? I think the key is in the synergy of all stakeholders," Dr. Surjono explained when asked after attending the QS Seminar yesterday.

The QS seminar itself is organized by QS and co-hosted by QS Intelligence Unit (QS IU) and the University of Indonesia. The seminar held on August 6, 2018, was held at Margo Hotel -Depok and took the theme of Indonesian Universities on the World Stage - The Influence of Global Rankings.

Ben Sowter (Head of QS Intelligence Unit), E Way (Regional Manager- South East Asia), and Dr. Shadi Hijazi (QS IU Consultant) who was invited as a speaker at the event gave several additional insights about the ranking conducted by QS.

Attending this forum Dr. Surjono underlined several things. QS Forum uses a measurement methodology that is 50% more 'subjective', namely academic reputation parameters (40%) and employer reputation (10%). These two parameters were obtained from academic surveys and employer surveys.

The other half of the assessment is objective data consisting of four parameters; ranking consisting of faculty/student ratio (20%), citation per faculty (20%), international faculty ratio (5%), and international student ratio (5% )

The 'subjective' assessment weight which includes 50% weight requires branding that is quite aggressive which is expected to have an impact in the form of increased cooperation, a better emotional/personal relationship, and it will strengthen UB's image according to Overseas College colleagues. So when they receive an academic survey conducted by QS, they will nominate UB.

In this academic survey nominations from colleagues in overseas universities were more calculated by QS. For campuses in Indonesia, including UB, most of the nominations are given by respondents from Malaysia, Japan, and Australia (sorted from the largest number of respondents).

To improve its rank in Indonesian level UB must improve the criteria that its performance has not been maximized based on the criteria of Kemenristekdikti. Those criteria are HR, Institutional, and Research + Publication (sorted from the weakest).

To improve the ranking in Kemenristekdikti in this short-term, UB should update PDPT data, accelerating professors and doctors, the ratio of lecturers/students, the ratio of study programs to accreditation A, and publications.

"Hopefully by working together with all university components, UB can improve the quality and become one of the respected World Class Universities in Asia and the world," he concluded. (SUR/mic)